17491: Former WPP CEO Mark Read Puts The Con In Conference.

Mediapsssst reported former WPP CEO Mark Read is launching a London conference to connect AI startups, business and marketing leaders, and potential investors.

 

Um, didn’t Read technically exit WPP for failing to bring together AI startups, business and marketing leaders, and potential investors?

 

Former WPP CEO Read Launches AI Start-up Conference

 

By Richard Whitman

 

Former WPP CEO Mark Read is launching a new conference in London next month designed to bring AI startups, business and marketing leaders and potential investors together, according to UK reports. It’s called Prompt. 

 

Read was quoted by online trade publication More About Advertising as saying, “I launched Prompt because I could see the opportunity to bring AI leaders together with business and marketing leaders.” In London, he added, “There’s not a venue that does that today and what I hear from CEOs and CMOs is a desire not only to embrace AI but also to know who they should be talking to.” 

 

The inaugural conference takes place June 9 at London’s Design Museum and is timed to London Tech Week.  

 

A decade ago, Maurice Lévy, the former Publicis CEO, co-founded a similar event in Paris called VivaTech, a conference and exposition.  

 

That event is still going strong. This year’s event takes place at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles on June 17-20. It’s expected to draw 180,000 attendees, 14,000 startups, and numerous global tech leaders and investors.

17481: On Honda Motor Europe Media Pileup.

MediaPost reported Honda Motor Europe completed a formal review, handing its lead media duties to EssenceMediacom in the WPP Media unit. The scheme will also utilize the WPP Open platform.

 

WPP CEO Cindy Rose probably applauds the win as proof that Eviscerate28 is working.

 

Okay, except the creation of EssenceMediacom, WPP Media, and WPP Open all happened under predecessor WPP CEO Mark Read’s watch.

 

To compound the confusing complexity, the incumbent White media agency for Honda Motor Europe was UM, which shifted when Omnicom acquired IPG. The loss could be fallout spotlighted and foreseen in a previous post.

 

It’s difficult to tell who’s in the driver’s seat for this pileup—but drones across WPP and Omnicom will likely serve as crash test dummies.

 

WPP’s EssenceMediacom To Lead Media For Honda Motor Europe

 

By Steve McClellan

 

Honda Motor Europe has appointed WPP Media’s EssenceMediacom as its lead media agency for the region, following a formal review.  

 

Spending in the region last year by the client is estimated at close to $90 million by agency research firm COMvergence.  

 

The auto giant previously worked with UM in the region. It wasn’t immediately clear what other agencies participated in the review.

 

The new partnership, effective in August, spans Honda Motor Europe’s automobile, motorcycle, marine, power products, and corporate communications divisions across 16 European markets as well as pan-European activity.  

 

As part of its remit, a dedicated agency team will lead Honda’s media strategy, planning, and activation across Europe. It will leverage marketing platform WPP Open, to integrate Honda’s brand-building, product communications, conversion activity, audience intelligence, channel planning, activation, and reporting into a unified system. 

 

Honda’s decision comes as the company strives to evolve its marketing approach and strengthen alignment across brand, product and customer engagement activities, according to the company.  

 

Consultant MediaSense was retained by the client to assist with the review.

17459: WPP = Worldwide Problems Proliferating.

 

Financial Times reported WPP CEO Cindy Rose might not earn up to £14.2 million (roughly $19.1 million USD) as previously reported by The Times, pending an investors vote scheduled to happen this week. Financial Times, incidentally, indicated the potential payout could reach £11 million versus The Times’ £14.2 million figure.

 

Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis—two prominent shareholder proxy advisory groups—recommended that investors vote against the proposed pay deal.

 

The ISS rejection recommendation stated the payment scheme “is considered out of proportion to the company’s market positioning and its financial performance,” and there is “no sufficient justification to set her total pay package at a premium to her predecessor.”

 

While former WPP CEO Mark Read’s 2024 salary was capped at £8.6 million, former WPP Overlord Sir Martin Sorrell once pocketed almost £30 million—so it’s tough to dispute or agree with the ISS position.

 

Glass Lewis stated investors should oppose pay proposals given “the significant salary on appointment for the CEO, the discrepancy between financial and non-financial metric outcomes under the annual bonus, and the lack of disclosure surrounding the decision to grant [long-term investment plan] awards at maximum level despite a significant fall in share price.”

 

Regarding the Rose pay package, WPP claimed it had “undertaken extensive consultation with our shareholders on the proposed changes to our remuneration policy, with strong support indicated from the vast majority.” Plus, the single White operating company stated the changes were “essential to align us with global peers, restore growth, and position WPP as a company fit for the future and built to win.”

 

The entire mess underscores three key points:

 

1. Rose should attend all earning calls, seizing such opportunities to justify her salary—whatever the actual amount might be.

 

2. Given the fuzzy pay figures, confusion surrounding organizational restructuring, and overall lack of transparency, WPP should consider keeping Burson, as there is great need for professional PR to hype the company’s progress.

 

3. WPP is a flaming dumpster.

 

17436: FYI WPP CTO WTF.

 

Adweek reported WPP hired a Chief Transformation Officer: someone with a somewhat vague ambition to do something to somehow actualize Eviscerate28 someday, presumably by sometime in 2028.

 

WPP couldn’t get its story straight, claiming the role was new, even though a former WPP executive held the title. Plus, ex-WPP CEO Mark Read once declared the White holding company would become a “creative transformation” enterprise.

 

At WPP, transformation is a buzzword typically preceding transition in the form of mass layoffs.

 

At this point, it’s hard to distinguish Autobots from Decepticons in the corporate drama. Optimus Prime would concede defeat if faced with WPP’s transformers saga.

 

Wonder if McKinsey & Company recommended hiring a CTO in the recent strategic review, as the consultancy has defined the fuzzy function.

 

The new executive previously worked at Estée Lauder, which should come in handy since she must now put lipstick on a pig.

 

WPP Taps Estée Lauder’s Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as Chief Transformation Officer 

 

She’ll be central to the group’s three-year turnaround plan

 

By Rebecca Stewart

 

WPP has hired Anne-Isabelle Choueiri from The Estée Lauder Companies as chief transformation officer to help reset the business as it seeks to return to growth by 2028.

 

Based in New York and reporting to CEO Cindy Rose, Choueiri will be tasked with designing, implementing, and embedding the operations to execute WPP’s “Elevate28″ three-year turnaround plan. The advertising network announced its turnaround strategy in February, after it posted an 8.1% year-on-year revenue decline.

 

In a press release, WPP said Choueiri will lead efforts to make WPP more innovative, efficient, and better connected for clients.

 

She will sit on the executive committee, and key parts of her role will include baking AI and tech into WPP’s day-to-day processes, as well as working with its people team to bring staff along with the changes.

 

Choueiri has spent the last six years working at Estée Lauder’s parent group, most recently as SVP of transformation. While there, she shaped the beauty giant’s operating model and its marketing, data, and analytics capabilities. She also led its AI strategy.

 

Previously, Choueiri held leadership roles at consultancies including Accenture, Bain’s Masaï, and Kearney.

 

WPP described the transformation chief role as newly created. However, holdco veteran Lindsay Pattison previously held the position in 2017, subsequently becoming chief client and chief people officer, before departing in 2025.

 

‘Bold, lasting change’

 

Rose said delivering on “Elevate28” would mean transforming how WPP operates and shows up for clients, adding that Choueiri was “exactly the leader [WPP] needs to drive bold, lasting change.”

 

She has already started transforming the business, having joined just as its share price hit a 16-year low in September 2025. Her reset plan has been designed to stabilize the business in 2026, build momentum in 2027, and return it to growth from 2028 onwards. 

To achieve this, WPP is now oriented around four units: WPP Media, WPP Creative, WPP Production, and WPP Enterprise Solutions, across four key regions: North America, Latin America, EMEA, and APAC. This new setup is underpinned by its proprietary AI platform, WPP Open.

 

When she announced the plan two months ago, Rose said the sweeping restructure would deliver annual cost savings of $676 million (£500 million) and was informed by six months of “rigorous analysis” and conversations with WPP’s clients, which include Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestle, and Ford. The holdco brought on McKinsey to lead a strategic review in November.

 

At the time, the CEO offered little detail on what specific cuts or asset sales would deliver this target.

 

While Rose declined to go into specifics about potential further layoffs, she stated that WPP would consolidate leadership at “global, regional, and market levels” and remove duplicate roles across its creative agencies. She also said the group would de-duplicate functions across its finance and people teams over the next three years.

 

In a statement on her new role, Choueiri said she was joining WPP at a “pivotal moment.”

 

“Lasting transformation requires the right culture and operational mindset, and I’m excited to help build an environment where innovation thrives, and our people are empowered to embrace change,” she said.

17430: Wendy’s + WPP Media = WTF.

Advertising Age reported Wendy’s handed its US media business to WPP Media after a closed review featuring WPP and Omnicom.

 

The scenario is so messed up, it’s difficult to deliver focused commentary. Hence, here’s the bullshit excreted with random bullet points:

 

• A closed review between WPP and Omnicom underscores the exclusive arena created by White holding companies. How was Omnicom even a contender, given its deep ties to Mickey D’s? Perhaps Omnicom promised to erect firewalls separating legacy Omnicom and IPG enterprises. Regardless, it all shows major accounts will be divvied up between a cabal of predominately Caucasian corporations.

 

• Wendy’s creative business has been handled for over 14 years by VML, a White advertising agency within the WPP Creative confederacy. The client claims the media assignment simplifies marketing efforts via an integrated model. On the flipside, Wendy’s admits sales suck and brand performance has steadily declined in recent years. In most cases, such results would rightly prompt a full account review. Yet WPP was rewarded for incompetence with added Wendy’s business.

 

• Ad Age positioned the win as evidence of WPP CEO Cindy Rose’s direct involvement on pitches. Okay, except as detailed above, this scheme really wasn’t a pitch. Additionally, WPP Media was invented by ex-WPP CEO Mark Read. So, it appears Rose is simply riding Read’s coattails, which were torn, tattered, and disintegrating rags.

 

• Wendy’s US CMO has been with the fast feeder for nearly 15 years; however, she was elevated to the role only three years ago. Most of her former professional personas involved serving as a financial analyst. Ad Age previously stated WPP victories under Rose leveraged low-balling maneuvers and price-cutting incentives. Need an explanation for Wendy’s decision to hire WPP Media? Do the math.

 

• In the end, it looks like Wendy’s ultimately chose the least stinky pile of dung.

 

Wendy’s is adding media to WPP’s remit—behind the decision

 

By Jon Springer and Ewan Larkin

 

Wendy’s has awarded its U.S. media business to WPP Media in a move it says will accelerate an ongoing turnaround and build on its longtime creative relationship with WPP’s VML.

 

The restaurant chain had long worked with Publicis Groupe’s Spark Foundry. That agency declined an invitation to defend and declined to comment. WPP and Omnicom participated in the closed review, said Lindsay Radkoski, Wendy’s U.S. chief marketing officer.

 

Wendy’s spent $319 million on measured media in 2025, down from $520 million in 2024, according to MediaRadar.

 

The shift comes as Wendy’s looks to reverse disappointing results, including U.S. same-restaurant sales that fell 5.2% last year, including an 11.3% plunge in the fourth quarter. To that end, the brand is rethinking how its marketing operates. It is moving away from siloed creative and media teams toward a more integrated model designed to speed up execution, reduce inefficiencies and better connect campaigns to sales, Radkoski said.

 

“Our business performance has not been where we want it to be. It’s not where the category’s been,” Radkoski said. She added that the review also reflects broader changes in how brands connect with consumers. “I really believe that the days are gone of the historical creative and media silos,” she said.

 

The brand and media agency are already cooperating in ways that are faster and more seamless than before. During this year’s March Madness college basketball tournament, Wendy’s was signing athletes to NIL deals in near real time as standout plays unfolded, turning them into social advocates for the brand. The brand is a longtime March Madness sponsor.

 

“In the past, who signs the influencer [the media agency or creative agency] led to some duplication and not being as efficient in the work as we need to be,” Radkoski said.

 

Tactics like this will help Wendy’s respond faster and produce more in-the-moment content that will change the way its social accounts feel, Radkoski said. The brand also plans to lean more into product-focused marketing and ongoing campaign storytelling.

 

Wendy’s longstanding creative relationship with VML

 

Although creative agencies are often in the crosshairs when brands attempt a turnaround, VML, Wendy’s creative partner of 14 years, isn’t going anywhere.

 

“We’re happy with that partnership,” Radkoski said. “Like any relationship, you have to have big conversations about how’s the team, how’s the business, how’s the talent, how’s our operating model, what do we need to adjust … We’re in a really healthy rhythm with the VML team.”

 

Bringing creative and media into the same ecosystem will help Wendy’s “build around VML,” Radkoski added.

 

WPP pitched a model in which Wendy’s retains control of its data through a private network, rather than relying on agency-owned data platforms, said Brian Lesser, CEO of WPP Media. The multiyear deal includes an outcomes-based component, linking a portion of WPP’s compensation to business results, he added.

 

Wendy’s is the second largest U.S. burger chain by sales but remains well behind McDonald’s and has struggled in recent years. Its CEO, Kirk Tanner, departed in July after just 18 months on the job to take the CEO job at Hershey Co. Ken Cook, Wendy’s chief financial officer, has served as interim CEO since.

 

In October, Wendy’s launched a comprehensive turnaround program called “Project Fresh” aimed at modernizing how consumers experience the brand. As part of that program it retained Creed UnCo, a consultancy led by former Taco Bell CEO Greg Creed, to sharpen how the brand targets customers.

 

Wendy’s marks another major media win for WPP under new CEO Cindy Rose, who took the reins Sept. 1. WPP has been battling declining revenue and a string of client losses as it works through a multiyear turnaround plan. But the company has recently shown signs of life in the pitch room, notching assignments with Jaguar Land Rover, The Estée Lauder Cos., SC Johnson, the U.K. government and Henkel.

 

Key to this momentum, as Ad Age previously reported, has been Rose’s increased presence in reviews, as well as a newfound sense of humility and selectivity. WPP still has a ways to go to right the ship, but a win with Wendy’s in the U.S.—where marketing consultants have said the agency group’s perception hasn’t fully recovered following years of internal reorganizations—is the kind of proof point it needs to start winning back advertiser confidence.

17397: Will Cindy Rose Consider Moving From CEO To Intern?

 

More About Advertising reported independent advertising agency UltraSuperNew offered an internship to WPP CEO Cindy Rose, thinking she could benefit from the experience since she’s never worked at a White advertising agency.

 

Okay, except Rose’s predecessors hardly qualify as bona fide admen.

 

Prior to launching WPP, Sir Martin Sorrell served as Group Finance Director for Saatchi & Saatchi.

 

Prior to succeeding Sorrell, Mark Read served as Global CEO of Wunderman, a dull direct marketing agency that transitioned into a dull digital agency—before being merged with J. Walter Thompson and finally swallowed by VML.

 

Sorrell abandoned WPP as the global enterprise was financially tanking. Ditto Read.

 

So, the White men preceding Rose arguably leveraged their shaky Adland expertise to orchestrate the White holding company’s downfall.

 

Other holding company CEOs have questionable backgrounds.

 

Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn’s resume includes pollster and political strategist. Penn served as CEO for Burson-Marsteller, a PR firm that WPP is reportedly seeking to dump. Like Rose, he also served as an executive at Microsoft.

 

Havas Chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré advanced via nepotism.

 

In short, Rose is not more unqualified than any man running a holding company.

 

UltraSuperNew tweaking Rose feels misguided and misogynistic—even though she’ll probably fare worse than the White men who blundered before her.

 

Although Rose’s ultimate failure won’t be a result of her Adland inexperience; but rather, because it’s futile to resuscitate a dead dinosaur.

 

Rose might eventually need a returnship, not an internship.

 

PS: UltraSuperNew has questionable leadership too. An agency born and raised in Harajuku appears to be run by White men and a handful of Japanese executives. In Adland, there’s nothing ultra, super, or new about corporate colonization.

 

Indy agency offers ad newcomer Cindy Rose a helping hand

 

By MAA Staff

 

Independent agency UltraSuperNew has noticed that new WPP CEO Cindy Rose has never actually worked in an ad agency and has offered to help out. (Don’t know why they’re so surprised, these days a working knowledge of — or even fleeting acquaintance with — AI is much more desirable.)

 

Anyway, agency co-founder Marc Wesseling is offering Rose (who spent her career at Disney, Vodafone and, latterly, Microsoft) an internship.

 

He says: “We read about Cindy’s new strategy for WPP with great interest and great sympathy. (She) has had a remarkable career in tech, media and telecommunications. She is clearly a brilliant executive. But we noticed that she has never actually worked inside an advertising agency. Not a big one. Not a small one. Not any one. And we think that might be a problem when you’re running one of the biggest collections of advertising agencies in the world.”

 

Interns at UltraSuperNew are expected to contribute from day one, from making coffee to sitting in on client calls. Sadly, they’re unpaid but with offices in Tokyo, Singapore and Amsterdam there are compensations.

17262: Former WPP CEO Back In The Driver’s Seat.

Adweek reported former WPP CEO Mark Read landed as Chairman of the freshly fabricated Board of Directors at Kantar Media.

 

The Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital—which bought Kantar Media in August— gushed, “Mark’s appointment underscores our commitment to backing Kantar Media with exceptional leadership. … His deep industry knowledge and proven track record in driving transformation and innovation will be invaluable as [Kantar Media CEO Patrick Béhar] and his team take the company into its next phase of growth.”

 

Proven track record in driving transformation and innovation?! Um, Read arguably proved adept at driving WPP off the track—creating a fiery car wreck.

 

Mark Read Lands First Post-WPP Role as Kantar Media Chairman

 

The former WPP chief will lead Kantar Media’s newly independent board.

 

By Audrey Kemp

 

Mark Read has landed his next role after stepping down as CEO of WPP: Chairman of the newly formed board of directors at Kantar Media.

 

It’s his first post since ending a 30-year run at WPP, which included seven years as CEO, as well as leadership roles at Wunderman and WPP Digital. His move to Kantar comes less than three months after Cindy Rose was installed as WPP’s new CEO in September, though he is set to stay on as an advisor to the holding company through the end of the year.

 

In a statement, Read said he was looking forward to joining Kantar in its mission to bring “greater clarity to the media ecosystem at a time when audience behavior is changing more rapidly than ever.”

 

“Kantar Media serves a unique and essential role in the media ecosystem: helping advertisers, agencies, media owners, and platforms understand how people are consuming media and how best to direct their media investments,” he said.

 

Patrick Béhar, CEO of Kantar Media, noted Read’s combination of “deep strategic thinking” and “practical experience in transformation, data, and AI,” as key to his selection. “Most importantly, he shares our ambition to transform the industry by bringing clarity to a complex landscape,” he said in a statement.

 

The appointment comes after Kantar Media was sold by Kantar Group and Bain Capital to H.I.G. Capital for a reported $1 billion in August, leading it to form its first fully independent board.

 

“Mark’s appointment underscores our commitment to backing Kantar Media with exceptional leadership,” Nishant Nayyar, managing director at H.I.G., said in a statement. “His deep industry knowledge and proven track record in driving transformation and innovation will be invaluable as Patrick and his team take the company into its next phase of growth.”

17240: Rose Rhetoric Reads Like, Well, Read.

 

Adweek recently played a WPP doubleheader, pitching more content on the chaotic games at the White holding company.

 

Upon issuing another profit warning—and remarking WPP’s performance was “unacceptable”—WPP CEO Cindy Rose declared, “My ambition for WPP is sky-high, and we are committed to doing the hard work it will take to turn this business around. … We haven’t gone far enough or fast enough in adapting to the evolving needs of our clients. They want our offer to be simpler, more integrated, powered by media, data, and AI, efficiently priced and designed to deliver growth and business outcomes. You can expect us, in our effort to improve our execution, to be focused in those areas. … We’ve got strong foundations, and we’ve got the ingredients we need to succeed, including amazing clients, strong capabilities, world-class talent, and some of the most consequential agency brands in the world. We have unrivaled global scale and reach, market-leading technology, and technology partnerships that really give us a competitive edge, and all of that makes this a very exciting platform for us to build on. … There is a lot to do, and it will take time to see the impact, but in my first 60 days, we are already moving at a pace with some initiatives already announced and more to come. We know what it takes to win: we are optimistic, energized, and confident that we’re building the right plan and the right culture to secure a bright future for WPP, our people, our clients, and our shareholders. We look forward to sharing more details early in the new year.”

 

The Roserrection Plan doesn’t sound much different than former WPP CEO Mark Read’s bullshit—or other White holding companies’ ramblings.

 

Indeed, Rose’s rhetoric could better reflect her alleged ambition by consolidating to read: Simpler, Faster, Cheaper—with proprietary AI too!

 

All four characteristics, incidentally, point to global RIFs.

 

After Issuing Another Profit Warning, WPP CEO Says She Has a Turnaround Plan 

 

Cindy Rose told investors that AI and competitive pricing will be top-of-mind for the holdco as it looks to claw back market share and revive its stock price

 

By Kendra Barnett

 

WPP issued its second profit warning this year on Thursday after reporting worse-than-expected Q3 results.

 

Following her first earnings call at the helm of the advertising giant, new CEO Cindy Rose said WPP’s financial performance “is certainly not where it needs to be” on a call with press Thursday—and she promised a plan to fix it. 

 

“My ambition for WPP is sky-high, and we are committed to doing the hard work it will take to turn this business around,” she said.

 

Key pillars of her roadmap include simplification, competitive pricing, and, of course, AI.

 

“We haven’t gone far enough or fast enough in adapting to the evolving needs of our clients,” Rose told reporters. “They want our offer to be simpler, more integrated, powered by media, data, and AI, efficiently priced and designed to deliver growth and business outcomes. You can expect us, in our effort to improve our execution, to be focused in those areas.” 

 

To revamp the business to meet these demands, focus areas in the coming months will include client acquisition and retention, strengthening the go-to-market strategy, and optimizing WPP’s org chart while “building a high performance team culture,” Rose said. 

 

The company is also evaluating ways to expand its addressable market through the potential integration or development of additional enterprise tech solutions, though Rose declined to go into specifics. 

 

The former Microsoft exec took the reins at the British advertising behemoth last month, with Mark Read exiting after a tumultuous seven-year stint in the role. 

 

WPP has suffered hit after hit this year, with investors losing confidence amid a messy reorg of its media division, AI acceleration challenges, and a spate of high-profile client departures—with both Coca-Cola and Mars migrating their media accounts to French rival Publicis.

 

Rose has hit the ground running in her first two months in the role. She’s overseen a leadership reshuffle and inked a deal with Google that includes a $400 million pledge from WPP to integrate the tech giant’s advanced AI tools into WPP Open, its AI marketing platform. Last week, WPP launched a self-serve version of WPP Open to court dollars from small businesses and performance marketers. 

 

The company expects WPP Open Pro, and WPP Open more broadly, to drive much-needed revenue. Rose views the platform’s underlying common data model as a key differentiator among agency AI solutions, noting that it helps clients “optimize their entire marketing investment across the entire marketing function.”

 

Of these recent developments, Rose said: “These are all bold and decisive moves that hopefully give you a sense of our direction of travel, and you can certainly expect more of the same from us in the months ahead.”

 

“We need to go farther and we need to go faster,” she added.

 

As WPP pours resources into its AI programs, another priority will be to revitalize WPP Media, rebranded earlier this year from GroupM. In Rose’s view: “GroupM lost its way, but I’m very confident in [CEO] Brian [Lesser]’s vision of an open and privacy-compliant data- and AI-powered ecosystem.”

 

The media buyer saw signs of growth in Q3, snagging new business from Mastercard, logistics titan Maersk, and retailer Marks & Spencer.

 

WPP said it will share a more comprehensive strategy plan publicly in the coming year. 

 

Despite its financial woes, Rose signaled confidence in the firm’s direction.

 

“We’ve got strong foundations, and we’ve got the ingredients we need to succeed, including amazing clients, strong capabilities, world-class talent, and some of the most consequential agency brands in the world,” she said. “We have unrivaled global scale and reach, market-leading technology and technology partnerships that really give us a competitive edge, and all of that makes this a very exciting platform for us to build on.”

 

:::::

 

WPP CEO Cindy Rose Calls Performance ‘Unacceptable’ as Full-Year Outlook Slumps 

 

The new boss is ‘moving at pace’ to get the holdco back on track

 

By Rebecca Stewart

 

The numbers

 

–8.4% – revenue decline for the quarter, down 3.5% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis

 

–11.1% – decline in revenue less-pass-through costs down overall and 5.9% on a like-for-like basis

 

–5.5 – 6.0% – How much WPP now expects revenue, less pass-through costs, to decline in 2025. This is a drop from its previous forecast, which predicted a decline between 3 to 5%.

 

–$4.3 billion (£3.25 billion) – revenue less-pass-through costs for the quarter.

 

Watercooler talk

 

WPP has reported its first earnings under the leadership of new chief executive (CEO) Cindy Rose, who has launched a strategic review aimed at helping the embattled holdco return to growth.

 

As revenue dropped 8.4%, the business has downgraded its full-year guidance for the second time this year, issuing a fresh profit warning.

 

In her first public statement to investors and journalists, Rose said WPP’s performance was “unacceptable.”

 

She said the business was taking action to improve this, including making investments in AI and simplifying its operational structure.

 

Former Microsoft exec Rose took over from longtime WPP boss Mark Read in September.

 

The business has faced a challenging first half of the year thanks to client losses on the media side, including Mars, which it lost to French rival Publicis Groupe. Before Rose joined, it also undertook a restructuring of its WPP Media division, which resulted in significant layoffs.

 

Revenues at WPP Media were down 5.7%, while the North America market, which is about to face even stiffer competition as Omnicom Group prepares to close its acquisition of IPG, dropped 6%.

 

In her first two months as CEO, Rose has focused on building up WPP’s AI arsenal, including inking a $400 million deal with Google and launching WPP Open Pro, an AI platform marketers can use to build campaigns, develop creative assets, and activate on their own.

 

Key quote

 

“There is a lot to do, and it will take time to see the impact, but in my first 60 days, we are already moving at a pace with some initiatives already announced and more to come,” said Rose.

 

“We know what it takes to win: we are optimistic, energized, and confident that we’re building the right plan and the right culture to secure a bright future for WPP, our people, our clients, and our shareholders. We look forward to sharing more details early in the new year.”